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Ralston should know better. A “Schroedinger’s Cat” reference would work if the glass is opaque and sealed, and the only way to determine if it is completely full or completely empty is to break the seal and check. Until that point, it would simultaneously be full and empty. Schroedinger was concerned with what we can know about things, not what we call them. The philosophical question of whether “half full” or “half empty” is the appropriate description for the glass currently in front of him might be more up Wittgenstein’s alley.

I would myself say that the significance of the glass’s current state is relative to its desired state, or to its previous state. If I’m filling the glass, the job is half done. Likewise, if I’m emptying the glass, I’m halfway there.

Of course, if the glass contains something one wouldn’t WANT to drink, the optimist might call it “half empty” while the pessimist might call it “half full.”

About Ink Pen

Ink Pen: the insider’s look at the seedy underbelly of cartoon character employment. Find out what happened to loveable Bixby the Rat! Witness the struggles of Ham Hock, the talking pig, as he tries to break into a business that sees him as nothing more than a slab of meat. Meet (briefly) the plucky sidekicks, thrust into danger by careless superheroes and the villains they duel.